Papermaker&#39;s felt



May 19,1935 J. P. KOESTER 2,041,137

PAPERMAKER' s .FELT

Filed Jan. 1o, 1936 J/f/v l? KOESTER Patented May 19, 1936 UNITED STATES PATENT oFFlcE PAPERMAKERS FELT y John P. Koester, Piqua, Ohio Application January 10, 1936, Serial No. 58,592 1 claim. (c1. 13s-ass) formly distributed stock or pulp. supporting portions and uniformly distributed water drainage openings of relatively large size. In the process of making pulp or paper, these `large openings permit the rapid drainage of water, allowing lessening of the 'normal pressure necessary on press lrolls of the paper machine, and in turn increasing the life of the felt as it lightens the friction now necessary where felt passes through the press rolls. Moreover, the pulp or paper being delivered to the driers of the paper machine will have more water removed than is permitted by types of felts now being used, and increasedproduction can be had because'the sheets will be delivered to the driers in a drier condition than when using present types of felts, thus allowing the machine to be run at a greater speed. The cost of drying. paper or pulp will in this manner be greatly reduced.

Papermakers felts are usually made entirely of all wool yarns and it is customary to weave them considerably wider than the desired finished size,

these felts being shrunk, felted or fulled by the application of Isoap, moisture and pressure,l in

machines known as fulling mills.- Her'etofore,l in

attempting to make lfelts of unusually open construction, it has been found impossible to finish such felts and obtain an evenly balanced fabric, due to the filling slipping on the warp, causing heavy and light spaces in the finished fabric, but 40 a further object of my invention is to overcome these difliculties by making use of a special weave which is such that the warp and filling strands will not relatively slip on each other during finishing but will remain set. I have shown the preferred embodiment of the invention in the accompanying drawing.

Fig. 1 is a fragmentary elevation.

Fig. 2 is a much exaggerated sectional view on desired. Itis preferable, however, that the yarn be of such fibrous nature that the peripheral libres of the various reaches, hereinafter referred to as strands, may be thoroughly interlaced to screen the water drainage openings against passage of 5 paper stock therethrough, without materially interfering with drainage of water through said openings. Each strand may consist of one piece of yarn, `or a plurality of pieces disposed side by side and woven as a single strand in the weaving 1o of the felt.,

Warp strands are disposed in groups 5, there being three warp strands 6, 1. and 8 to each 'of these groups in the present disclosure. The strands 6,'1 and 8 of each group areuniformly 15 spaced apart a relatively slight distance, for instance, slightly le'ss than the diameter ofthe strands, and the groups 5 are spaced apart a relatively great distance, preferably a distance two ,or more times the diameter of the strands. 20

The filling strands are disposed in groups 9, there being three strands I Il, II and I2 to each of these groups, in the present showing. 'I'hese strands I Il, II and I2 are spaced apart to corre-.-

spond with the spacing of the warpstrands 6, I 25 and 8, and the groups 9 of iilling strands are spaced apart to correspond to the spacing of the groups 5 of warp strands.

The warp and filling strands are interwoven to provide the felt with uniformly spaced stock- 30 'supporting portions and with large water drain- 4the alternate stock-supporting portions I3 each comprise the two outside warp strands 6 and 8 of one warp strand group 5 bothpassing over the two outside lling strands I0 and I2 of one 45 filling strand group 9, the central warpstrand 1 of said one warp strand group passing under all three of the lling strands I0, II and I2 of said one filling strand group, and the central iilling strand II of said one filling strand group passing over all three ofthe warp strands 6, 1 and 8 of said one warp strand group. The weave of each of the intervening stock-supporting portions I4 is the reverse of the weave of the alternate portions I3. I

By the particular weave shown and described. the reticular stock-supporting portions I3 and I4 possess small water drainage openings II and elongated water drainage slots I6, and large water drainage openings i1 exist between said stocksupporting portions. The peripheral 'ilbers i8 of the strands are so interlaced that they screen the various openings and slots against passage of pulp or stock therethrough, without materially interfering with the drainage of water through said openings and slots,- as I have illustrated in Fig. 2. These fibers may be carded and left with a rather loose fluffy pile at one side of the felt and may lie more compactly at the opposite side, or may be disposed in any other -preferred way, according to the character of the paper or pulp to be handled. i

By providing the novel felt structure shown and described, or an equivalent thereof, the felt possesses uniformly distributed stock or pulpsupporting portions andv large uniformly distributed water drainage -openings between said portions, and said portions and openings will maintain their 'uniform distribution during the finishing of the felt in a fulling machineor in any other desired way, instead of the strands bey coming bunched or compacted in certain zones and widely spaced in others, as commonly occurs when finishing papermakers felts of the' typesv commonly employed. Thus, not only is the stock or pulp better supported to form better paper or ther like but water permeability is materially increased. The. felt, therefore, will enable the papermaker to increase the speed of his driers and thereby increase the production, resulting in lower 1 operating costs. Less pressure on the pressing rolls .is required to remove an equal amount of water from the sheet of pulp or paper, which will materially increase the life of the felt, thus resulting in lower operating costs. Should equal pressurebe applied to the pressing rolls,

' the improved felt will enable the rolls to press more water from the sheet-thus causing the samev to be delivered to the driers with less water conwill be saved by mills using the invention, due to .lowering yearly costs for felts, decreasing the ywarp strands, there being three of these warp strands in each 'group uniformlylspaced apart relatively short distances, said groups being uniformly spaced apart. relatively great distances; and groups of fibrous filling strands, there being three of these filling strands in each group spaced to correspond with the spacing of the warp strands of any group, the groups of filling strands 20 being spaced to correspond-.with the spacing of the groups of warp strands; said warp strands and lling strands being interwoven to provide the felt with reticular lwoven uniformly distributed stock-supporting portions and with large uni- 25 formly distributed water drainage openings between said stock-supporting portions; the weave being such that the alternate stock-supporting portions each comprise the two outside warp strands of one warp strand group both passing over the two outside filling strands of .one filling strand group, the centralxwarp strand of said one warp strand group passing under all three of the filling strands of said one filling strand group, and the central nlling strand of said one filling strand group passing over all three of the warp strands of said one warp strand group; the weavev 0f the stock-supporting portions intervening be-v tween said alternate portions being the reverse of the weave of said alternate portions; the peripheral bers of the strands being so interlaced as to screen the water drainage openings. against passage of stock therethrough without materially obstructing the drainage of water through said openings.

JOHN P. KOESTER. 

